We woke up this morning to beautiful views over the surrounding fields and hills and after a little lie in, had a quick breakfast of frittata and coffee and then packed up and hopped in the car. Our first stop for the day was Caerleon Amphitheater, the best reserved Roman amphitheatre in Southern Britain apparently. It was pretty spectacular - although our photos were made more challenging by trying to dodge the multiple children from a family picnic right in the middle. As well as the outlines of the ring and seating, there were also little sections that were clearly cages or rooms, and even a space that was identifiably a shrine. Very cool! Once we’d wandered around the amphitheatre we walked a little way into Caerleon itself, where there were signs towards Roman Fortress Baths. These turned out to be closed as they were an indoor space but the town itself was gorgeous and we had a nice little walk around before heading back to the car.

The next spot on our itinerary was Tiny Rebel, a brewery that Peter really likes. We’d made a booking for 12 and arrived right on that time. They seated us outside at a little table in the sun (we immediately put on sunscreen as Peter had a run in with the sun earlier in the week) and we ordered a couple of drinks (just a 1/3 pint for me to sip at) and some crisps. We tasted a few beers that we hadn’t tried before that were ok, actually didn’t end up buying any take away! It was really nice to just sit and relax in the sun though. 

Once we’d finished up there and were getting hungry, we headed back to the car and ate the leftover burgers that we made last night. Then it was back on the road and heading north. We’d planned out a little itinerary based on places Peter’s dad had told him that their family had lived. This started by turning off the highway to Pontypridd, and then following the road through Porth and Tonypandy. We turned off the main roads and wiggled our way up to Clydach Vale, which was adorable but had very steep and skinny roads! We took some photos and admired the little bunting-strewn villages. At this point I remembered we were almost out of petrol so we headed back down to Tonypandy, where we filled up the car and picked up some last minute dinner bits from the supermarket. 

From Tonypandy we drove up to Penderyn Distillery. Unfortunately they weren’t doing tours or tastings and clearly weren’t impressed with people being there so we ended up just getting a little take away taster and getting back in the car. We decided we were both tired and that it was time to head to the accommodation so from there we headed straight up through the Brecon Beacons. It was a beautiful drive through wide open land, with no apparent farm houses but so many sheep! We had to dodge quite a few on the road or very close to it. We wound our way along the rising mountains and admired the views before turning off onto a stupidly tiny road. By some miracle we didn’t encounter any other cars going in either direction until we made it to our accommodation, only had to squeeze past some walkers. However when we got to the driveway, it was so tight and steep that we initially thought we’d scratched the bottom of the car getting around the sharp angle and up. Turned out it was just the wheels protesting, and it was actually fine, but we definitely weren’t keen to drive anywhere again after that. 

We settled into our gorgeous little cabin for the evening and got a fire going in the outdoor fire pit. Peter cooked a couple of fantastic steaks over the coals and we had a very basic salad to accompany. After dinner we attempted a game of 7 Wonders but I was too tired so we ended up just heading to bed pretty early. The Brecon Beacons are supposed to have spectacular stars as it’s a dark sky reserve but at this time of year it’s not getting dark until 11pm or so, so it’s a bit too hard to see them!